Is the Rangbah Shnong (village headman) a social worker or is he something else? Or is the office of Rangbah Shong all in one? This question requires more research and it was flagged by none other than our own man of letters Dr Silvanus Lamare who is also Principal of St Edmunds College. The question was raised during one of the recently held college functions but the point is that this question should have been asked a long time ago and maybe even before we even came up with the Bill for empowering the Rangbah Shnong or the Waheh Chnong. But like the saying goes – better late than never, so here is one attempt to answer the question and hopefully people will share more ideas on this important subject.
The Rangbah Shnong’s job is a voluntarily one as the person performs his job as a social obligation without expecting any kind of remuneration whatsoever so, we can call him a social worker. Till today it is a commonly held notion that the Shnong does not pay any compensation to anybody who is a Rangbah Shnong, but is it so? In many villages and localities in towns, although the Rangbah Shnong is not paid a regular remuneration as such, but he is compensated for the time and energy he expends in many direct and indirect ways.
In the urban areas the cut from land deals in the locality is something that sustains the person holding the office of Rangbah Shnong and currently also in the rural areas. Since the Rangbah Shnong or the Secretary Shnong also perform their duties as Chairman or Secretary of the Village Employment Committee (VEC), it is an open secret that they have their cut from the jobs sanctioned for the village through MNREGS scheme. In certain cases the Rangbah Shnong also charges a certain sum of money for issuing an NOC or other documents which also form part of monetary compensation to the person holding the office.
It is also an office through which various government departments and other agencies reach out to the community at large. In fact the office of u Rangbah Shnong is like a key which opens the lock to any village or locality in the town. Without the permission from the office, no government department or agency can enter the village or interact with the dorbar shnong. Facilitating access to of government departments and private agencies to the village is one aspect of the office of the Rangbah Shnong which is voluntary in nature.
If the Rangbah Shnong is an institution then it is also an office without a physical building of its own because traditionally the dorbar shnong did not need a building as such. Till today it is only in the localities in towns and cities that the dorbar shnongs have offices. In the villages the residence of the incumbent Secretary or the Rangbah Shnong automatically becomes the office of the shnong. One positive development which is common to all the dorbar shnong is that all the shnongs and the dongs in the towns and cities now have their own community halls, dorbar halls or Ïungwalieh (white house) in some cases in Jaintia hills.
Due to absence of a physical infrastructure to call an office, very often the transfer of power is not always smooth and in such cases files, registers and important document are lost in transition. Many a times even important documents of historical importance are misplaced. Almost every Shnong has at least one occasion in its history when transition of power from the outgoing to the incoming Rangbah Shnong is not as smooth as it should be.
There are numerous cases of abuse of power by the Rangbah Shnong; it could be as simple as the incumbent refusing to convene the mandatory general meeting for election of new office bearers despite the fact its term of office has lapsed, or something else. Complaints of nepotism and favouritism against the Rangbah Shnong about him favouring himself or his near and dear ones are common. This is further bolstered by politicians who only want government schemes to benefits their supporters with the Rangbah Shnong conveniently facilitating such nefarious activities is a well established fact.
But coming back to the question of whether a Rangbah Shnong is a social worker or an office, or a voluntary worker the answer is that it is a voluntary job hence the incumbent performs his duties leisurely and at his own whims and fancies. Sometimes he does not perform and or he under-performs and this is why many dorbar shnongs fail, whereas there are also some dorbar shnongs which are super active.
A case in point is when the DRDA made it mandatory for all job card holders to have a bank account and that the VEC should make sure that they have bank account. A typical Rangbah Shnong will make a public announcement to make people aware of the government directive and no further action is taken. He will not take any steps because according to him, his duty is to inform and make people aware of government’s order and that’s about it. But everybody knows that the account opening will not happen and the village will lose its opportunity to get work orders for MNREG works.
But there are also cases of pro-active VEC secretaries who know how this will work and take all the trouble by going door to door to collect the important documents for opening bank accounts and submit the same to the banks to facilitate the opening of bank accounts for job card holders in the area. He takes extra efforts to see that the job is done and it works. But we have very few cases like this where the Rangbah Shnong and the VEC Secretary walk the extra mile to see that the order is implemented for the benefit of the village and its inhabitants.
In many cases whenever the Rangbah Shnong is in the news, it is always for the wrong reasons. We have had have cases where the Rangbah Shnong tries to negotiate a deal between the victim and the perpetrator heinous crimes such as the rape of a minor, or when he ostracises an individual or families on the pretext of them being the keepers of thlen or taro or nongshohnoh, (practitioners of black magic) or even because the person does not belong to the faith of the majority in the community. In such cases the Rangbah Shnong takes the law in his hands and intrudes even in matters which are not under his jurisdiction.
At one point of time the dorbar shnong even had this false notion that the police need to have the permission of the Rangbah Shnong even to arrest a criminal. Isn’t this an obstruction of justice or for the law to take its own course? The point is there is no effort from either the Autonomous District Council or any agencies to capacitate the Rangbah Shnong to understand what their mandate is. There is no prescribed job description to help the Rangbah Shnong understand what he can and cannot do. If at all some shnong have job descriptions for the Rangbah Shnong that varies village to village.
Capacity building for the Rangbah Shnong is especially necessary and urgent with the implementation of MNREGS because people need to be aware of the scheme from how to do priority ranking of works to demanding work and of course other paper works that go with the scheme.
The next big question is can we expect people to continue to work on a voluntary basis forever? Is it possible? By expecting people to continue doing the cumbersome work voluntarily are we not in some way encouraging them to become corrupt? Bearing this in mind, in the implementation of the MNREGS a certain percentage from the total amount estimated for the work is allotted for use of the VEC Secretary, because we cannot expect them to continue working on a voluntary basis.
Everything evolves with time and, tradition too just like water takes the shape of a container and also according to the influence of the factors around it. The office of the Rangbah Shnong has failed in many cases because it remains a voluntary office and does not respond to the changes that happen around. It is high time that we revisit and re-examine the powers and functions of the Rangbah Shnong if it is to remain relevant in the times to come.